Mullah Zabihullah, a spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan, was quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat as saying that the terrorist group had established “relations and new networks” with Iran.
The report claimed that Zabihullah said, “The movement is trying to benefit from all legitimate means to reach a regional agreement as part of the war against the American invasion… [and] holds ongoing networks with a large number of regional and neighboring states.”
Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said the claim is “a pre-meditated attempt” by “the terrorist-nurturing sponsors of the terrorist group” of Taliban, to trigger Iranophobic perceptions.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always had a pioneering role among regional countries in the fight against terrorist groups, and has so far sustained much material and immaterial costs in the fight against those groups,” Qassemi said.
He went onto say that the Taliban statement is “an obvious lie.”